Butterbur ordinary

Butterbur, also known as Petasites hybridus, is a plant in the Asteraceae family. Its distribution area covers northern Europe up to and including Scotland and north-western Germany.

Butterbur grows as a perennial plant and reaches a height of 10 to 40 cm during its flowering period, while it bears fruit up to 120 cm. The rhizome of the plant is about 4 cm thick and brownish in color.

The roundish leaves of butterbur can reach a diameter of up to 60 cm; their underside is initially gray and hairy, later bare. The inflorescences appear between March and May. The racemose inflorescence has numerous flowers that are reddish-white or reddish-purple in color.

Petasites hybridus is the parent plant of Petasitidis rhizoma, the butterbur rhizome with a positive Commission E monograph. Butterbur leaves have a negative monograph of Commission E, not processed by ESCOP and HMPC, in empirical medicine they are used for bronchial asthma and allergic rhinitis.

Antispasmodic, analgesic and vegetative regulating. The drug itself as wild material must not be used due to the pyrrolizide alkaloids it contains!

1. Wenigmann M. (2017) Phytotherapy medicinal drugs, phytopharmaceuticals, application. Urban & Fischer, p. 169,170